The Center is for Schmucks: Richard Nixon and the 1960 Election

"The center is sexier than you think," said no one ever.  Only New York Times columnist Frank Bruni could be so vapidly removed from reality.  Such lifeless branding can only come from the likes of pathetic schmucks.  Political centrists whose disinterest in policy and lack of opinions is clear as blue.  However, mainstream Democrats aren't the only ones to have lost big by drifting towards the center.  In 1960, Richard Nixon lost the presidential election because he failed to take a firm stand on key issues.  Historian Rick Perlstein documents this in his book Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus.

On foreign policy, many Republicans thought Nixon was weak.  During the last televised debate, Kennedy forced Nixon to adopt a soft public position on the issue of Cuba.  When asked about an invasion of Cuba, Nixon was forced to sidestep around the answer.  The reality is that the Bay of Pigs invasion was being planned by the Eisenhower administration and that Nixon couldn't reveal the slightest hint of an attack.  Kennedy's sources made him aware of this and he pounced on Nixon.  Democratic presidents have a notorious history of getting the United States involved in foreign wars in the 20th century.  For die hard Republicans of the Goldwater and Taft type, this moment solidified their feelings that Nixon would be weak on opposing Communism just like the Eisenhower administration.

Domestically, Nixon's middle of the road policy on civil rights alienated two potential constituencies - Southern states rights advocates and black voters.  Traditionally, the party of Lincoln was the more progressive party for black Americans from 1860 to 1960.  Because recent Democratic platforms advocated for Brown v. Board of Ed. and federal integration, Dixiecrats began looking to the Republican Party.  Still, Nixon ignored the states rights South, opting to target the "big six" swing states: Illinois, Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio, Michigan, and California.

 When Nixon's friend Reverend Billy Graham suggested that he reach out to Martin Luther King, Nixon ignored the advice.  His running mate, Henry Cabot Lodge, promised a Harlem audience that the Nixon administration would include a black cabinet member.  Nixon was furious.  Famously, John F. Kennedy telephoned Coretta Scott King after Reverend King was arrested in Birmingham. Following up with a slick leaflet strategy at black churches, Kennedy was able to steal enough black votes to win the election.

.Similar to Hilary's election defeat in 2016, tons of excuses were made for Nixon's defeat.  Pundits believed that Eisenhower failed to speak publicly in Nixon's favor.  Had Eisenhower stimulated the economy right before the election, Nixon would have won.  Henry Cabot Lodge was seen as lazy and prone to nap on the campaign trail.  Had Nixon been more charming on television, some thought, he Kennedy would have been defeated. 

All of these excuses sound awfully familiar.  Democrats continue to blame Russia, rather than offer substantive policies in 2016.  As Rick Perlstein put it: "The fact shored up a conservative nostrum: millions of people would rather stay home than endorse the Republicans' leftward drift." Inverted, this same statement speaks true of the current state of the Democratic Party.  In order to win, Democrats have to embrace left wing policies such as Medicare For All, abolishing ICE, and a fifteen dollar minimum wage.  Its obvious that schmucks like Tom Perez, Chuck Schumer, and Nancy Pelosi will fight tooth and nail against their party's left, but the tide of history is not on their side.